particle N2 uncommon casualwritten
〜やら〜やら — what with ~ and ~
〜やら〜やら ・ やらやら
Builds on やら
Meaning
- what with ~ and ~ / between ~ and ~ — lists a jumble of co-occurring things, often overwhelming or chaotic
Repeating やら after two (or more) items piles them up as a confused, often burdensome mix. 引っ越しの準備やら手続きやらで、忙しい ('what with moving prep and paperwork and all, I'm swamped'). It frequently pairs opposite feelings — 嬉しいやら悲しいやら ('a mix of happy and sad') — to show the speaker can't sort them out. The tone is 'all this stuff at once', not a tidy list.
Key sentence
年末は大掃除やら買い物やらで、目が回る。
At year's end, what with the big clean-up and the shopping and all, my head's spinning.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Two+ nouns, verbs, or adjectives (plain) | Xやら Yやら（で） | 泣くやら笑うやら / 暑いやら眠いやら |
When: Casual; conveys a chaotic pile-up of things or mixed emotions, usually with a tired or overwhelmed tone. Often ends 〜やら〜やらで before a result clause.
Examples
子どもが熱を出すやら車が故障するやら、散々な一日だった。
What with the kid running a fever and the car breaking down, it was a dreadful day.
合格の知らせに、嬉しいやら信じられないやらで、涙が出た。
At the news that I'd passed, between joy and disbelief, I teared up.
Easily confused with
やら A single やら marks one vague/unknown item ('something or other'); repeated 〜やら〜やら lists several things jumbled together ('what with X and Y and all'). や や lists nouns neutrally as representative examples (本やノート); 〜やら〜やら adds the speaker's sense of a chaotic, overwhelming heap — and can list verbs and adjectives, not just nouns. とか とか casually lists examples without emotional colour; 〜やら〜やら specifically conveys confusion, busyness, or mixed feelings about the things piled up.
Notes
- Often used for clashing emotions (嬉しいやら恥ずかしいやら) where the point is that they're tangled together.
See 〜やら〜やら in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜やら〜やら the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar.